DiNapoli: New York City seeing largest and longest job expansion since the end of World War II

State Comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli spoke at The Working Family Party State Convention, held Saturday at The First Corinthian Baptist Church, Harlem, NY. May 19, 2018. (Gregg Vigliotti/For New York Daily News)

The Big Apple is booming.

New York City employment reached 4.55 million jobs in 2018, the highest level ever recorded, according to a report released Wednesday by State Controller Thomas DiNapoli.

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In the decade since the housing market crash in 2008, the city added 820,400 jobs, more than every state in the country except California, Texas, Florida and New York as a whole. The city’s current job expansion is also the fastest, with an average of 91,200 jobs added each year.

“New York City is experiencing its largest and longest job expansion since the end of World War II and the city has been the driving force behind the state’s employment gains,” DiNapoli said. “While job growth remains strong, there are national and global risks that could affect the pace of future growth.”

The citywide unemployment rate fell from 10.1% in October 2009 at the height of the recession to an annual rate of 4.1% in 2018, the lowest level since 1976 and only slightly higher than the national rate. In 2018, there were 721,800 more jobs in the city than before the recession hit.

Since 2009, total employment in the city has grown by 22%, faster than in the state, 13.2%, and the nation as a whole at 13.5%.

Most of the jobs added in the city over the past 10 years were in hospitality, DiNapoli said. Nearly one-fifth of the citywide job gains, about 153,500, were in leisure and hospitality. Restaurants were responsible for nearly two-thirds of the gains within that number. However, the report note, those jobs commonly have salaries well below the citywide average of $89,800.

Wall Street is still recovering from the recession with the high-paying securities industry reporting solid job gains in recent years, but is still 4% smaller than before the financial crisis.

Even without the addition of the 25,000 jobs Amazon promised if it hadn’t pulled out of its planned Queens campus, the technology sector is doing fine. Tech jobs have increased by 80% to 142,600 jobs across the five boroughs.

With an average salary of $152,900 in 2017, tech has “become one of the economic drivers in New York City,” the DiNapoli said.